The penultimate issue of DC’s Blackest Night, at over 130,000 copies sold in February, was up 30% from the previous issue’s first month sales.Blackest Night was also unusually strong for February, the month that is traditionally the weakest comics sales month of the year, with the highest sales for the top comic seller since November.

Marvel’s Siege #2 had a remarkably strong performance as well, holding virtually unchanged from its sales on #1.

There were still only two titles with sales above 100,000, not an auspicious month over-all.

Marvel won the top 25 by an unusually small margin, beating DC by only 13 titles to 12.A fairly typical 16 out of the top 25 titles were down in sales vs. the previous issue, eight were up.

Dark Horse had the top title not from the Big Two, with Buffy the Vampire Slayer #32 coming in at #28 (around 48,000 copies sold).That was the only title from a non-Big Two company in the top 80 comics in February.

Fables Vol. 13: The Great Fables Crossover topped the graphic novel chart, with nearly 12,000 first-month sales. Marvel's Kick-Ass Premium HC came in at #2 in the run-up to the movie, with around 9000 copies sold.

Viz had the top manga title, with Naruto Vol. 47 coming in at #4 with around 5100 copies sold.

Here are ICv2's estimates of the sales by Diamond Comic Distributors to comic stores on the top 25 comic titles in February:

At the GAMA Trade Show, ICv2 spoke with SJG COO Philip Reed and Munchkin Line Editor Andrew Hackard about plans for licensed games, the amazing sales growth of the brand, and the sales patterns they’re seeing.